Paraformaldehyde found in Quebec

[argohauler]

Went to my Farmer's Market last Saturday and a customer asked if I used paraformaldehyde in my trees, to which I replied no as it`s illegal to. She said they were in Quebec, so I did some Google searches.

http://www.torontosun.com/2014/02/20/maple-tree-doping-dangerous-chemical-boosts-syrup-production

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/sticky-fingers-beating-the-bush-in-search-of-maple-syrup-cheats/article17261481/

[madmapler]

The spokesman for federation has a good point though. Other areas are'nt going to find what they're not looking for. Quebec should be commended for their commitment to quality.

[jmayerl]

Ah look at it this way, they say the penalty is dropping the grade to commercial yet still buying it. If they buy it it makes it into the federations supply, therefore the federation basically admits that there syrup supply now has paraformaldahyde in it......wow, I just got a great new selling technique that proves my syrup is much safer than Canada's

[madmapler]

Thats a mistake that'll no doubt cost them.

[ennismaple]

wow, I just got a great new selling technique that proves my syrup is much safer than Canada's

Really? 3 out of 10,000+ producers in Quebec and you lump all Canadian maple producers together. Pretty sad...

[Russell Lampron]

I wonder how many producers in the states and other provinces are using paraformaldehyde where nobody is looking for it?

[jmayerl]

Really? 3 out of 10,000+ producers in Quebec and you lump all Canadian maple producers together. Pretty sad...
The article says 15. And yes I lumped all federation SYRUP together, not producers as you suggested. The federations stand on it is stated very simply that they buy the syrup and penalize the producer with a "fine"
That is what I said.

[CBOYER]

...One problem with enforcement is that formaldehyde occurs naturally in maple sap...

We had discuss of this articles in a French Qc. Forum. FPAQ still buy and downgrade syrup after testing it. Testing of the syrup is made by Centre Acer, independant from FPAQ. Since they dont find any residual harmfull chemicals in Syrup, they cannot refuse it. FPAQ make a lot of surprise inspection in tapping times, taking wood sample in random taps for analyse..
Cheaters are Cheaters... remember a guy name Lance Armstrong ?

How much documented producers taps inspections from Vermont authorities (or others States) could you show us from the past three years ?

[mountainvan]

Three producers number wise is nothing. One bad story getting on social media and we are all screwed, US or canada. At least till miley what's her name or justin who really cares do something stupid and focus all the hipsters on them. That should be very soon by my calculations. Until then, keep up the good work up north, we'll try not to do anything too stupid down here!

[happy thoughts]

Three producers number wise is nothing. One bad story getting on social media and we are all screwed, US or canada. At least till miley what's her name or justin who really cares do something stupid and focus all the hipsters on them. That should be very soon by my calculations. Until then, keep up the good work up north, we'll try not to do anything too stupid down here!

I couldn't have said that better if I tried. :)

[ennismaple]

jmayerl,

Not exactly. You said your syrup was better than Canadian syrup because of what's gone on in the Federation. Ontario and New Brunswick are each about equivalent to New York in total syrup produced per year but are not at all involved with the Quebec Federation so you can't lump us with Quebec. We go to great lengths to differentiate our locally produced syrup in Ontario as a large percentage of the syrup sold here comes from Quebec too - Ontario is a net importer of syrup as demand exceeds supply.

I don't agree that the Federation should allow contaminated syrup to enter the food chain - it should be dumped. I know Ontario forces some syrup to be dumped each year because of higher than permissible lead levels because our Ministry of Agriculture and Food is very pro-active at monitoring food safety. They would never allow it to be sold as sub-standard syrup so it can be diluted and re-processed.

[Scribner's Mountain Maple]

The thing that jumped out at me, and many have already pointed out is that they still bought the syrup???????????????????????????????????

So we are commending them on "quality control" in QC??????????????????????? Sure they caught the breach by the producer. But...

To me they are failing the maple industry and consumer by buying this syrup.

They blend it all anyway to control taste right? It would make perfect sense that this good tasting Commercial Syrup will be blended with other good syrup and find it's way into a crap brown colored QC container and on a shelf in the US?????

Why wouldn't they dump that producers syrup and make an example out of them so others will get the memo.

I mean they are willing to (in my opinion) steal another producers entire crop because they try to enter the free market and not sell to the Fed. Now the Fed is standing by a producer that is also breaking the law by buying their poison syrup.

With all the terrible press the Fed is getting, spoofs on TV and even a movie coming I think, I wonder how long for this world the Fed is?

Ben

[CBOYER]

I think you dont understand my explanation. The Qc Fed. want to refuse the syrup, but they cannot rely the tap contamination found to the syrup produced, so as per Canadian laws (federal government, The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) ) the syrup is not found contaminated, and they are forced to accept it.
The penalty of dropping grade to commercial is the more they can apply in this cases. If they had found any or enough trace of Paraformaldéhide in the syrup, they could apply the Federal law and dump it, and they re will be happy to do it.

Some producers on our forum suggest to give the Federation the capacity to remove quotas to these cheaters, we dont need them...

[DrTimPerkins]

...so as per Canadian laws (federal government, The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) ) the syrup is not found contaminated, and they are forced to accept it.

The U.S. EPA regulates pesticides used in food manufacturing and any residues therein. PFA was at one time an allowed pesticide in maple production. I believe the way the regulations read here is that nothing beyond what is "naturally-occurring" is allowed. If there is knowledge and evidence that PFA was actually used, I wonder how the EPA would interpret and apply that rule.

[Flat Lander Sugaring]

knowingly and allowing a carcinogen to be mixed in with all other good syrup produced should make all that syrup worth 1.00 a pound,

please set me straight US farmers, If one dairy farmer contaminates the whole truck load of milk he buys it and it gets dumped on the ground? this is how I understand it.
So if thats true so should all the syrup contaminated by a know carcinogen

[Thompson's Tree Farm]

please set me straight US farmers, If one dairy farmer contaminates the whole truck load of milk he buys it and it gets dumped on the ground? this is how I understand it.
So if thats true so should all the syrup contaminated by a know carcinogen[/QUOTE]

That is true if the level of the contaminant is high enough. What they are saying in this instance is that there was no detectable level of paraformeldahyde that was greater than what might have occurred naturally detected. I know of dairy farmers who brag that "dilution is the solution" for antibiotics in milk.

[PATheron]

CBOYER- Havent I seen you post on here tons of times that Canada makes real maple syrup and everybody in the states are deliberately trying to poisen small children and kill thousands of people by using one galvanized elbow somewhere on some plumbing? Now your making excuses for using pills in tapholes and even worse finding it and still using it? Seriously?

[collinsmapleman2012]

CBOYER- Havent I seen you post on here tons of times that Canada makes real maple syrup and everybody in the states are deliberately trying to poisen small children and kill thousands of people by using one galvanized elbow somewhere on some plumbing? Now your making excuses for using pills in tapholes and even worse finding it and still using it? Seriously?
not to add to the prodding, but when I was up there a couple weeks ago I saw a lot of galvanized, and one place with some pans that im pretty sure had to be lead soldered. the federation still uses galvanized barrels too, saw that in the packing plant. realistically, we are all still in the same transition stage of galvanized to stainless.

[CBOYER]

CBOYER- Havent I seen you post on here tons of times that Canada makes real maple syrup and everybody in the states are deliberately trying to poisen small children and kill thousands of people by using one galvanized elbow somewhere on some plumbing? Now your making excuses for using pills in tapholes and even worse finding it and still using it? Seriously?

Mr Pat, first i never make excuse for those cheaters: i try to explain what happens and whats are the laws and rules apply by the differents authorithies. If your authorithies doesnt make test for PFA at tapping, they cannot find them...On this case they cannot rely the spraying of a PFA solution in a tap (no pill involved) to syrup produced. And i think that you generalize and amplify things about poisoning: i had make a remark about a very nice complete ss operation that finish in a Galv. elbow...Why ??
Please dont be like the reporters, and read correctly my posts.

[Clinkis]

I think it is very nieeve to believe that this problem is isolated to Quebec. The only reason we are discussing it is that Quebec is so vigilant about testing for it. I think this should be seen as an eye opener that these problems exist in our industry regardless of where we are located and that everything must be done by all stake holders to eliminate them. Lets work together and not point fingers.

[cvmaple]

Well said Clinkis, Fighting amongst ourselves isn't going to solve anything